Runaway Clown: A Dramedy
by Exotos135
Summary: A take on the "Adopted" AU. After Luan reveals something of her past to Luna, that very same thing returns in the present day, forcing her to either try to deal with it herself, or find some way to once again leave the past behind.
1. Chuckles

It was a normal day at the Loud house, which of course couldn't be anything but loud. In particular, the older sisters sat on the adult table with their parents, eating their food as their father read the newspaper.

"Huh, would you look at that," Lynn Sr. remarked. "It's been a while since I saw a set of news concerning Chuckles."

The mention of the name "Chuckles" caused Luan to stop eating altogether and freeze in place, shivering in apparent fear, which Luna soon noticed as Lynn asked, "Who's Chuckles, dad?"

"Chuckles is a clown girl that specialized on ironic or cruel humor, who disappeared years ago," Lynn Sr. answered as he read the news. "Basically, the last time anybody saw her was during her final performance, which involved pyrotechnics that caused a great fire. Nobody died, but quite a few were injured, including Chuckles. And according to these news, she's yet to be found."

Luan shivered some more. "Darling, they've been looking for her ever since the fire started," Rita remarked, putting a hand on her husband's shoulder. "Wherever she is, she's most likely dead by now."

"I-I-I need to go do something," Luan stated before getting off her seat and bolting out of the room, with Luna watching her all the way.

Then, a couple minutes later, Luna got up and said "I'm gonna go see how she's doing," before going after the panicking comedian.

So she looked around for a bit, and eventually found Luan in the attic, hugging herself and rubbing her arms as she constantly whispered "Leave the past behind" in a clearly frantic tone.

"Luan?" the rocker uttered, causing the comedian to jump and shriek. "Whoa there, dude, calm down, It's just me."

"L-Luna?" Luan stuttered, calming down a bit. "W-W-What are you doing here?!"

"I saw you freaking out over the Chuckles story downstairs, and I was wondering if something's wrong," the musician answered with a reassuring tone. "If something's bothering you about it, you can tell me about it and I'll help you."

While the smile and reassuring tone helped Luan calm down a bit, she still felt reluctant to tell her sister what was bothering her. "Can I trust you won't tell anybody about it?"

Luna nodded. "It'll just be between us."

"Chuckles is who I used to be before mom and dad..." she paused, took a deep breath, and finished, "Adopted me."

Luna's eyes grew wide as the realization kicked in, culminating in her shouting, at the top of her lungs, "Adopted?!"

Luan covered her "sister"'s mouth, then looked to the left and right to see if anybody was coming. Luckily, the area was clear, so she uncovered Luna's mouth, and she whispered the inevitable question:

"You're adopted?"

"Come on, it's not that surprising," the comedian answered in return. "We got over 10 siblings! It'd only make sense that one or two of them were adopted."

"Yeah, I agree, but I'd expect Lincoln, Lucy, Lynn, anybody but you to be adopted," then the rocker asked, "How did you even manage to go from being Chuckles to being... You?"

Luan took a deep breath and started, "I ran away as soon as the fire started..."

 _A long time ago..._

Luan, or Chuckles as she was known back then, ran away as fast as she could as she heard the sirens from the police, the ambulance, and even the firefighters.

"I was scared, it was one of the worst things I had ever done. I mean one moment I was enjoying the fact that I got somebody to laugh with my sense of humor, and the next one, I was running for my life."

As Chuckles continued to run, she glanced at her back to see the flashlights of the adults approaching her. Then she jumped into a bush and took several deep breaths.

"I was cornered, they had flashlights, and if they found me, it was all over. And so, there was only one thing left to do."

Chuckles looked at her clown costume, then took it off until she was only on her underwear.

"I took off my clown clothing, then ran off to somewhere far away from the incriminating clothing."

Chuckles got off the bush... And slipped on something next to a downward hill.

"And then I fell."

The young semi-naked clown gal rolled down the hill, occasionally clashing against rocks and other things that gave her a couple bruises, and in the case of rocks outright struck and hurt her teeth, until she landed right at the end of a pond, with the squad finding her soon afterwards.

"The pain was unbearable, and once I saw who was surrounding me, I did the only thing I could think of: Cry."

The younger Luan cried her heart out as one of the paramedics grabbed and lifted her. "Good lord, she's really bruised," she said as she inspected the injured girl. "Hey, where are your parents?"

"I-I don't know," the brunette said in the middle of her crying.

"Got it," the paramedic handed Chuckles to her partner, a policeman. "Take her to the nearest hospital to fix her bruises, then take her to the nearest orphanage."

"Understood."

 _Back at the present..._

"So I was taken to the hospital, where they helped fix my bruises and adjust my teeth with braces, then put me on an orphanage until Rita and Lynn adopted me," Luan said, taking a deep breath as she remembered what happened next. "My clown clothes were found, and ever since then, people have been looking all over for Chuckles, while I decided to start life anew as Luan Loud."

Luna looked with disbelief as Luan finished with, "But even after I managed to adapt to being Luan, which was my name to begin with so it wasn't that hard, the guilt of what I did as Chuckles never went away and..."

"And...?"

"Every April Fools Day, what guilt I have left from the Chuckles incident makes me do tons of dangerous pranks that could harm or even kill someone!" Luan confessed, holding back tears at this point. "The goal of these pranks is to catch the attention of the police, or anybody who could send me to jail, so I can finally pay for what I did as Chuckles!"

"So all those April Fools Day pranks-"

"Are the Chuckles side of my being acting up," Luan looked away. "And I simply can't help it: Chuckles wants to be taken in by the police, to get her comeuppance for the fire and everything else, but I don't want any of that!"

Luan looked at the ground. "I just want another chance at living a good life..."

Luna took a deep breath and scratched the back of her head. "Geez, the heart attacks everybody would have if they find out about this-"

"You promised you wouldn't tell anybody!" Luan exclaimed in a panic.

"I'm not! I'm just stating the obvious!" Luna clarified, putting a comforting hand on her "sister"'s shoulder. "After all, this is some pretty heavy information to take in!"

"...Sorry."

"Don't be, I perfectly understand," Luan shot a "really?" look at the musician. "Okay, I only partially understand, but I understand enough to know the consequences of what would happen if this information were to be discovered, so, we'll keep this a secret."

Luan smiled in relief. "Thanks, Luna."

"No problem, now come on, let's go back to the dining table," Luna helped her sister get up. "Maybe we can get there before Lynn tries to eat your portion."

"Wanna race?"

"Yeah, that's a much better idea."

And so, the rocker and the comedian ran off back to the dining room to save Luan's food from the nefarious hands of Lynn's appetite.


	2. Vision of the Past

**Before we begin, I'd like to thank That Engineer for giving me a good idea on how to continue the story, and be able to bring forth the story I had planned with this idea. Of course, I still have yet to show how the rest of the story will go, but everything will happen at it's given time.**

 **And before any of you ask, I'm not making this a long story. Probably below 10 chapters at best.**

 **So anyway, let's move on.**

* * *

Night time had arrived at the Loud house, and everybody were getting ready to sleep. This included Luna and Luan, with the latter clearly showing through her shivering that she had a bit of trouble falling asleep. After all, she just told her sister that she was the clown girl from the newspaper Lynn Sr. read! Yeah, she knew she

Although, that fact alone wasn't the only reason she couldn't sleep...

"Luna, can I ask you something?" the comedian inquired.

Without turning to look at her, Luna just said, "Go ahead, Love."

"Why did you ask me if I was adopted?" Luan asked, causing her musically-gifted "sister" to flinch. "Mom and dad told you I was adopted from the first day I arrived, so I'd expect you to be more surprised at the fact I used to be Chuckles."

"Well, that was really more along the lines of me just suddenly switching phrases," Luna answered, rubbing the back of her head. "You see, I was surprised more at the fact that you were the Chuckles girl who appeared in the newspaper, but since I had the feeling asking about that wouldn't help anybody, I went with the next best thing, which was asking if you were adopted."

"Which you already knew."

"Yeah... Anyway, I already explained myself, so how about we go to sleep already?"

Luan didn't answer, for she felt Luna's explanation wasn't good enough. But judging by the rocker's snoring, that didn't stop her from falling asleep. So, she figured, why not? It may be a Saturday tomorrow, but that didn't mean she couldn't have some shut-eye.

So she closed her eyes, and hoped she wouldn't get any nightmares this time...

 _Cue the nightmare..._

Luan heard an explosion that caused her to "wake up" right away, right in the middle of a familiar setting: The birthday party where Chuckles did her last performance. More importantly, the aftermath of the last performance: whatever wood was there was charred and burnt, some party hats had partially been destroyed due to the fire, and of course, there was yellow police tape surrounding the area, and hopefully stopping anybody from blindly coming in.

Not only that, but the whole area was in black and white, except for the fires, which were colored. "Oh no... No, not this again!" Luan exclaimed, grabbing her head in a panic. "This... This can only mean one thing-"

Suddenly, she heard footsteps. Not only that, but she felt a person approaching her, and she had an idea of who it was...

"Ugh, it's you, isn't it?" the comedian remarked as she felt the person walking closer to her.

Then, once the footsteps finally stopped, Luan opened her eyes and was met with a defiant glare from someone who looked just like her, but with two ponytails instead of two. This was none other than Chuckles, who's stern glare and bags under her eyes implied a certain degree of exhaustion and exasperation.

"Chuckles," Luan said at her copycat, clearly unnerved at her appearance.

"Yes, of course it's me. Did you really expect to see anybody else in here?" Chuckles crossed her arms. "After all, we're in your mind."

Then, she took a step forward and met the comedian face-to-face.

"My mind."

Chuckles too a couple steps back, then looked around at the scorched environment.

"Which you can easily tell from where we are," Chuckles added as she walked to a partially burnt party hat, while Luan just covered her ears and closed her eyes again. "Do you still remember this place? This, is where the fire started."

"Shut up," Luan hissed, though it sounded more like she was pleading.

Chuckles, however, just turned to the comedian and growled:

"This, is where you left me behind."

"Shut up!" Luan snapped, earning a glare from her copycat. "I-I left the past behind, okay?! I'm no longer the Luan that caused a fire and brought a bad name to my family! I'm now a brand new comedian! A brand new entertainer who won't repeat the same mistakes she did!"

"You know you're lying to yourself, my mere existence proves that!" Chuckles stated as she walked towards her counterpart. "Nothing you say will ever change the fact that you ran away from the mistakes you did, and left behind a caring family, your true family, in the process!"

"W-Well, what makes you think they would've continued being caring after the incident?!" the comedian growled, but her past self refused to flinch. "I burned a whole birthday party down, all because I... You... We couldn't stop after getting her to laugh! We committed arson! The police got involved! Do you really think they'll want anything to do with us after what we did?!""

"...Is that it?" Chuckles folded her arms. "Really, is that all you can think of? Not only did we commit arson, but we ran away, not only from our own actions but from our family, and went on to become someone else entirely, and that's the best excuse you can come up with?"

"It's not an excuse! It's a legitimate reason!" Luan snapped, stomping the ground. "And nothing you say will change my mind!"

However, those exact words made Chuckles remember something. This caused her to smile and tell Luan a horrible fact:

"Next week's April 1st."

That statement sent chills up Luan's spine, and as she grew fearful at the implications, Chuckles rubbed salt in the wound:

"You still remember what happens every April Fools Day, don't you? The very same day you caused the fire and ran away from your life as Chuckles, your mind succumbs to the pressure, and I get the chance to exist once more. And as long as I'm dominant, I make you pull pranks that grow more and more dangerous as they continue. All in some efforts to be noticed-"

"No!" Luan exclaimed.

"To have the police realize who we are!"

"Shut up!"

"To be arrested, incarcerated, outright punished for our crimes!"

"Stop talking!"

"To pay for what-"

Suddenly, a voice spoke, "Luan?"

This woke up the troubled comedian, who was met with a worried look from Luna.

"I heard you rolling a little to the left and right, saying somebody to stop talking. You usually only roll, so when I heard you talking, I got worried," the musician said as she brushed her younger sister's hair. "Is something wrong, Love?"

"...It was Chuckles," the comedian quietly-and hesitantly-confessed. "I met her in my dreams again, and like always, she reminded me of what I did and that April Fools Day will come soon. How she'll take me over and force me to do those horrible pranks all over again!"

This, alongside Luan grabbing her head and taking several deep breaths, made Luna realize the joker wasn't going to fall asleep without something... Or somebody, to help her deal with her past's torment.

"I can't let you sleep like this, Dude," Luna got on Luan's bed and hugged her. "How about I sleep with you today, just in case you get another nightmare like that?"

Luan didn't answer. Rather, she just nodded and smiled before she fell asleep again, with Luna keeping an eye on her to make sure she was sleeping well. And once she moaned and smiled, seemingly in relief, Luna kissed her forehead and went to sleep as well.

 _Meanwhile, with Bobby and Ronnie Anne..._

The siblings slept on their bedroom as a shadowy figure entered the room, walked up to them, and flashed a malicious smile. And just as they woke up and noticed her, she said:

"Ready for your big debut?"

And then, it all went black.


	3. A Nightmare Come True

**And now, we move on to the next chapter, where Luan's worst nightmare actually becomes a reality. What do I mean by this? Keep reading to find out.**

 **Also, if you were one of the reviewers who thought the person at the end of last chapter was Giggles or Luan... Again, keep reading, you might be surprised.**

 **By the way, this is probably the only story I'm gonna be updating this week. Lori the Fencer, Loud Prix, Chains of Reality, Poetic Sisters, etc, I'll try to get all those stories' next chapters done first before doing anything I could regret.  
**

 **Also, I'll try a little experiment: I'll only write 1000+ but less than 2000+ per chapter, except for maybe the last ones, and see if I can make a good story even with that.  
**

 **Anyhow, let's move on! :)**

* * *

It was Saturday morning at the Loud house, meaning the weekend had finally arrived! Something which Luna and Luan took advantage of, as they continued to sleep, hugging in each other with smiles plastered across their faces.

And who could blame them? Not only did Luan reveal something pretty significant yesterday, but it was the weekend! Who wouldn't just rest and relax on such a wonderful occasion?!

Well, if kicking the door open was any indication, Lori wouldn't.

"Both of you, up and at it!" she barked.

Luna and Luan jumped from their beds and hit the floor face-first, with Luna being the first to get up and whine, "Come on, Dude, it's Saturday!"

Followed by Luan getting up and asking, "Yeah, what's so important that you need to wake us up on a Saturday?"

"Oh, I don't know, how about the fact that there's something terrible on TV!" the young woman snapped, stomping the ground.

"Dude, most of the stuff on TV is either terrible or not that good anyway," Luna nonchalantly pointed out, with Luan nodding in agreement. "If you really don't like it, just change the channel, or did you lose the control remote again?"

"Not that literally sort of terrible!" Lori groaned in frustration. "Look, just get up, do your morning routine and come down to the living room immediately, alright?!"

The young woman bolted out of the room, and the musician and comedian duo just shrugged and did their morning routine before going downstairs, just as Lori asked. However, they were surprised to see the rest of their family downstairs, looking at the TV screen.

"Hey, dudes," Luna greeted, catching her family's attention. "Lori told us to come down here, said that something terrible was on TV?"

"Yeah, but this isn't your normal kind of terrible, it is..." Lynn said, before gesturing the duo to sit next to her. "Well, come take a look for yourself."

The duo sat down, and their attention was immediately caught when they saw a clown lady wearing two ponytails in the TV, giggling to herself. However, this clown lady sent a shiver up Luan's spine.

"Hello, my beautiful audience!" the lady greeted in the middle of her giggling. "Did you miss me? Admit it, you missed me!"

"N-No way..." Luan uttered fearfully. "I-Is that-?"

"That's right, it's me, Chuckles!" the clown lady revealed. "I figured you'd want to see me again after oh so long. April Fools Day is going to come right around the corner, after all! So I need to make sure my skills aren't rusty!"

And as the clown girl cackled, the family flinched and gasped, with Luan grabbing Luna's arm.

"But you don't need to worry, after I'm done with my little stunt over here, you won't see me again until April Fools Day," Chuckles... Chuckled. "Think of this as an appetizer compared to what I have planned for everybody in Royal Woods, which my assistants will gladly showcase right now!"

The lady snapped her fingers, and the signal changed to reveal Bobby and Ronnie Anne, both gagged and with their arms and legs tied. The former was tied to a pole with an explosive sitting in his crotch, and the latter sitting on a log heading to a wood shredder.

"Bobby Boo Boo Bear!" Lori shrieked.

"Ronnie Anne!" Lincoln exclaimed.

"So, as you can see, my assistants are in the middle of some supposedly dangerous situations, but if you know anything about us comedians is that the more pain there, the more hilarious it becomes!" Chuckles explained. "And don't worry, even if they do get hurt by this stuff, they're just random nobodies. Nobody will care about them."

"Why you little-!" Lori clenched her teeth.

"But if any of you are so inclined to save them, then we're stationed at the whoopee cushion factory in the middle of the city," Chuckles revealed with a stern tone. "You may also go look for me if you want to put me in jail, but then again, if you do that, you won't really have enough time to save these nobodies, will you?"

Then, as the signal started to glitch, Chuckles giggled one last time before finishing:

"And remember, city of Royal Woods," she frowned and flashed a demented smile. "This is child's play compared to what I have prepared for April Fools Day!"

And as the signal shut off, Chuckles laughed like an absolute madwoman, with her laughter echoing in Luan's mind even as the screen was filled with static, then promptly turned off.

While the family talked about what to do now, or even why did "Chuckles" broadcast her message in the first place, Luna and Luan went straight to the kitchen to discuss about the whole ordeal.

And naturally, Luan was pretty freaked out.

"How is it possible that Chuckles could have returned?! I ditched the identity years ago, and I don't remember leaving the house or anything like that," then, Luan came to a terrifying idea. "Did Chuckles take me over and made me go out and

"There's no way, dude!" Luna stated. "I held to you as hard as I held Mick Swagger's hand as I proposed marriage to him!"

One record scratch and confused look from Luan later, Luna quickly corrected herself, "I-In my dreams! I proposed to him in my dreams!"

"Yeah, that doesn't make the comparison any less weird," Luan answered.

"W-Well, I was holding you pretty tightly; there's no way you could've either left the house or forced me to let you go without waking me up!" Luna brushed her comedic sister's hair. "Besides, that broadcast was most likely recent. Whoever that is, I'm positive it isn't you, Luan."

"But that still doesn't answer who is the one impersonating my Chuckles persona," Luan scratched her head. "And why would they even do that knowing it would bring them nothing but trouble?"

Suddenly, Lori kicked her way into the kitchen, causing Luan to jump into Luna's arms. "What are you two doing here?!"

"Um, helping Luna practice her bride carrying abilities?" Luan nervously answered.

"And convincing me that I need to practice with a much smaller partner first!" Luna huffed as she tried to hold her sister, only to give in a couple seconds later.

"What? Forget it, I don't have time for this," Lori turned to the duo and folded her arms. "You two have to go upstairs and get dressed! We're going to the whoopee cushion factory!"


	4. A Bad Joke

**So, I just found out I'm supposed to get back to college by next Monday. What this basically means is that I'll inevitably become a bit more sporadic in my updates, specially due to the large amount of stories I have to update.**

 **But hey, here's the next Runaway Clown update!**

* * *

 _A bit later, at the whoopee cushion factory..._

Lori-alongside Lincoln, Luna, and Luan-crashed the door to the factory open with the vanzilla, parking right in the middle of the factory. "You didn't have to drive us here like a total maniac!" Lincoln complained.

"Right, because two of our most precious friends being in danger means I have to take my sweet time!" Lori scoffed. "Besides, this is still much safer than if Leni was driving."

So everybody got off-though the shaken Lincoln, Luan, and Luna did so more slowly for obvious reasons-and reunited after they saw the endangered Bobby and Ronnie Anne nearby.

"Alright, this is what we're going to do," Lori stated with a commanding tone. "While Lincoln and I do the best we can to try and help Bobby and Ronnie get out of their ordeals, you two will go looking around for that Chuckles! And don't dare come back until you've checked every inch and cranny of this place!"

"Y-Yeah, don't worry, sis," Luna replied, giving her oldest sister a wink. "We're going to look all over the place for her."

Lori nodded, gave her sisters a thumbs up, then left off with her brother to help their respective love interests. As they left, Luna took the chance to put a hand on Luan's shoulder. "Don't worry, Love, we'll find that impostor."

However, Luan wasn't paying attention, since her head was being swarmed by unpleasant thoughts narrated by a familiar voice:

" _I knew this was going to happen. We knew this was going to happen. We left our identity behind, and now it's come back to haunt us years after the fact. It doesn't matter what the real identity of the Chuckles impostor is, what matters is that none of this would be happening, if you had chosen to take responsibility for your actions! But no, you decided to run away, and now, who knows who they're going to hurt to get us to come out, you dirty little-_ "

And then, she heard:

"Love?"

This returned the comedian back to reality, which let her see Luna giving her a worried look. "Sorry, I spaced out for a moment," then, with rising determination, she stated, "Let's go look for Chuckles!"

Meanwhile, back with Lincoln and Lori, the duo were helping their respective love interests get out of their situations: Lincoln got on top of the log and behind Ronnie, who said something muffled as he tried to untie her, prompting him to say, "Quit freaking out, Ronnie, I got this covered."

Lori, on the other hand, grabbed the explosives and threw them away before trying to untie Bobby, who did the same thing as Ronnie. "Don't worry, Bobby Boo Boo Bear, your crotch is safe now," the young woman said in response.

Once she untied him, the duo went off to try and help Lincoln, who was untying Ronnie's legs just as they were about to reach the wood shredder. Lori quickly grabbed whatever she could grab-a rock, basically-and hurl it at the shredder in hopes of getting it to malfunction. However, instead of malfunctioning, the thing just... Burst, like a balloon, just as Lincoln freed Ronnie's legs.

"Wait, what?" the duo asked in unison.

Then came another surprise in the explosives, which went off not in a big, violent explosion, but some confetti being shot out of them... Followed by a small, violent explosion. With that done, Bobby and Ronnie took off their mouth gags, and after whining in pain for a bit, Ronnie revealed the truth:

"We were never in any danger!"

"Wait, what are you talking about?!" Lori asked, disheartened and worried.

"Everything you saw was nothing more than one massive, elaborated prank made by that clown girl," Bobby further explained. "Truth is, she never had any intention to hurt us, she just wanted to scare you for a quick laugh."

Lori formed a fist. "Ugh, when Luna and Luan find her-"

"She's not here!"

Everybody turned around and saw Luna and Luan running to them. "What do you mean she's not here!?" Lori hissed, clearly aggravated.

"Exactly what we said!" Luan answered in a panic. "We searched for a while, but there's no trace of Chuckles anywhere!"

Suddenly, a screen nearby turned on to reveal a giggling Chuckles, whose laughter caught everybody's attention. "Were you looking for me?" she asked mockingly.

"Where did you go?!" Lori snapped. "I thought you said you were going to be here!"

"Yeah, I was hiding among the boxes all around the factory, but as I waited for anybody to arrive, I grew increasingly bored with the waiting, so I decided to get out and let you save my assistants," Chuckles nonchalantly explained. "So, that's what happened: You simply took too long to get here."

"It only took us a half hour to get here," Lori pointed out.

"Well, you arrived a half hour too late, I guess," the clown lady chuckled. "And hey, look on the bright side: You won't see me again until April Fools Day! But once that day comes..."

Chuckles narrowed her eyes and sternly said, "I'll make sure you always get the joke."

Suddenly, a chair was thrown by Ronnie straight at the screen, breaking it in half. "I can't believe I didn't do that first chance I got," Ronnie remarked as she dusted herself. "Anyhow, thanks a lot for coming to help us, guys, even if we were never in any danger to begin with."

"Anything for you and Bobby, Ronnie," Lori replied, folding her arms. "And not to change the subject, but how did you even found out that those traps you were in were just pranks?"

"Chuckles blatantly told us that before she left the building," Bobby answered.

"Well, nothing else to do here, how about we drive you back home?" Lincoln suggested.

"That sounds nice," Ronnie went to Linc and gently jabbed him in the shoulder. "Thanks a lot, Lame-O."

And as Lori, Bobby, and Ronnie Anne walked back to the vanzilla, Luna and Luan remained behind for a moment, mostly for Luan to once again be invaded by her personal thoughts, and her inner self:

" _First, you fail to find the impostor before she leaves, and then you fail to even talk back against her when she appears in a screen? Are you seriously such a scaredy cat, that you can't even muster up the courage to speak up for yourself? Just because nobody knows who we used to be gives you no excuse to not develop past the frightened child you once were, and continue to be to this day. And with the impostor still on the loose, you better get ready for anything, for if she really acts like we used to, then she'll be completely unpredictable._ "

Eventually, Luan shook off her thoughts, though the fact her phone rang soon afterwards probably helped as well. So she took it out, and saw she got a message from her clown school friend, Giggles.

"It's Giggles," Luan said as she opened and read the message. "She seems to have heard about the news as well, and she and her mother are going to make something of an entertainment event to calm people down. She sent us an invitation-"

"Luna! Luan! Get here immediately!" Lori called from afar.

"Accept it, we can think about it later," Luna answered.

And as the rock star went off to the vanzilla, Luan wrote her answer-a simple "I accept"-and went to the vanzilla as well.


	5. Comic Relief

_The next day..._

The Louds went to the park in order to check out this "entertainment" event Giggles mentioned to Luan yesterday. It was made as a response to the return of Chuckles, and judging by the large amount of people at the park, it was definitely something needed.

"Wow, this is quite the audience your friend Giggles has," Luna remarked as she took a look around. "Are you sure she'll be able to entertain all of them on her own?"

"Yeah, well, that's the thing I was going to point out: She's not going to do it alone," Luan nervously answered. "You see, Giggles not only asked me to come to see the show, but also be a part of said show, as her assistant. And after thinking about it since the time we saw Chuckles, I... accepted."

"Really? That's nice, dude!" Luna pat Luan's back. "Not only will you get some relief from yesterday's shocker, but you'll give relief to a lot of other people too!"

"Yeah, I really hope I get to do that," Luan replied as she thought, " _Just as much as I hope Chuckles doesn't get in the way again._ "

Not long after that, Luna and Luan spotted Giggles-from behind the stage-waving at them, prompting Luna to gesture her family to take seats while she gave Luan one last piece of reassuring words:

"Good luck, Love, and remember, no matter what happened before, you're now Luan, and you're going to cheer me up, even if you don't manage to cheer up anybody else."

The comedian smiled and nodded before separating from the rock star, who promptly headed to the back of the stage and saw Giggles... Alongside Mrs. DiMartino, who reacted with just as much shock as Luan did when she saw her. However, the shock was soon replaced with joy as the comedy pair ran to each other, while uttering a couple words:

"Giggles!"

"Luan!"

The clown girl and dark comedian hugged each other gleefully as Mrs. DiMartino walked to them, then promptly separated them. "So, Luan, do you have everything ready for the act?" the woman inquired with a little smile. "I mean, I'm confident you did get at least something, right?"

"Yeah, I got everything ready!" the comedian confidently answered. "Pies, watermelons, whoopee cushions, trust me, this is going to cheer everybody up!"

" _And it'll let me know if it really is you, Luan,_ " DiMartino's smile grew wider. "Alright then, get to your positions, it's showtime!"

And so, the duo switched to their performance outfits and waited behind the curtain as the announcer-again, Mrs. DiMartino-shouted:

"Ladies, gentlemen, and random people who decided to butt into the audience, give a round of applause for Luan Loud and Giggles!"

The curtains went up as the audience cheered, with the Louds in particular applauding wildly and with excitement. Once the curtains got up, the dressed pair-Giggles looking the same while Luan looked like her "The Joker" persona, but with only one ponytail-bowed down, then cracked their fingers before beginning their act.

The first "joke" they made was throw a pair of banana peels on the ground, and just as the audience hummed in confusion, the duo promptly stepped on them and used the peels as skates of sorts, rolling around the stage until they returned to the middle, spun around for a bit, and then Giggles lift Luan, who winked at the audience before throwing away her banana peels, then jumping off while still clinging to Giggles. This allowed her to lift the clown girl up in the sky, though with some notable difficulty, and the two smiled as the audience clapped and the curtains went down.

Mrs. DiMartino hummed. Something seemed familiar, but she wasn't quite sure what yet.

The curtains went up and the next act begun. In this one, Luan and Giggles took a look around the stage, which now had several mirrors around the place. Giggles took a peak inside one, and her head came out of another mirror on the ceiling, which eventually caused her to fall to the ground afterwards. With that done, Luan did the same with another mirror, but came out of a mirror on the ground instead, and smiled at Giggles before leaping out of said mirror.

And soon enough, the pair ran through several other mirrors, jumping up and down until they came out, wearing each other's outfits. And the duo glanced at each other repeatedly as the curtains went down and the audience cheered and applauded once more.

This time, Mrs. DiMartino had an idea of what seemed familiar, but she had to wait. Only one more act, and then she could confirm it.

The curtains went up one more time, and the duo were now standing next to a watermelon on the ground. Luan handed Giggles a hammer, and the clown girl got ready to swing it down on the fruit, only to miss it completely and hit Luan in the gut instead, causing the audience to laugh a bit. The joker shook her head in disapproval, took the hammer and went forward to show Giggles how to do it.

The joker got ready, and swung down the hammer... Only for it to bounce back up and hit her in the face, revealing the watermelon was made of gum, or some other reflecting object. The audience chuckled, and Luan threw a glare at Giggles, who just shrugged and shook her head. The curtains quickly went down, then came back up a moment later to reveal the watermelon had been changed for an actual one.

Luan handed Giggles the hammer again-and stepped back just in case-then waited in anticipation as Giggles got ready to crush the fruit. She swung the hammer down... But it did nothing. She did it again, same result. Finally, Luan stepped in, snatched the hammer, then swung it down as hard as she could, causing the watermelon to explode right in front of her face, covering her in it's juice. The pair bowed down and the curtains went down for the final time, allowing the audience to cheer and applaud as loudly as they could.

And Mrs. DiMartino could finally confirm her suspicions, so there was that too.

 _Shortly after the show..._

Luan, now back to her normal clothes, and Giggles walked away from the stage as most of their audience threw some glowing praise at them, at least until the Louds ran up to Luan and outright hugged her.

"You were amazing out there, dude!" Luna exclaimed. "You actually got us to laugh and cheer up!"

"My favorite part was when the curtains went up and down!" Leni chirped. "They, like, have such a neat design!"

"You definitely upped your comedy a notch," Rita remarked before brushing Luan's hair. "We're very proud of you, darling."

Luan smiled, but just as she was showered with more praise, Mrs. DiMartino arrived and caught everybody's attention. "Mrs. Loud, could I discuss something with you and Luan?"

The comedian and her "mother" exchanged looks, and next thing they knew, they were right behind the stage, with Giggles and Luan talking about something while the women spoke.

"So, I'm going to guess you want Luan to team up with Giggles for another show, right?" Rita pondered, folding her arms. "If that's the case, then-"

"Actually, Mrs. Loud, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind if your..." Mrs. DiMartino hesitated as she glanced at the comedian. Then, she recomposed herself and took a deep breath before turning back to the woman and saying, "Daughter, Luan, came to visit my house for a day, after school, of course?"

"Well, this is a nice, if unexpected offer, Mrs. DiMartino," Rita answered, raising an eyebrow. "What prompted this offer?"

"I saw how Giggles enjoyed entertaining people with Luan by her side," Mrs. DiMartino glanced at Luan again. "I'm pretty sure a friendly visit wouldn't hurt anybody."

"I very much agree," Rita replied as Luan and Giggles laughed nearby. "Should I take her to your house, or will you come pick her up?"

"I'll come pick her up tomorrow," DiMartino smiled. "I'll get everything ready, then let you know when I'm coming, okay?"

"Sounds like a plan!"

And as Rita and DiMartino continued to amicably talk, DiMartino couldn't help but think one thing as she saw Luan and Giggles continued to talk:

" _I finally found you._ "


	6. A Visit

**So, I've come to the realization-both thanks to my rash decisions and A Hopeful Observer (that's literally their username)-that I may be putting too much work on me. So, I'm going to rip-off Omega Ultra and only update stories periodically.**

 **This week, I'll only update Runaway Clown: A Dramedy and Chains of Reality. What will be updated next week, I have no idea.**

 **So anyway, onto the chapter!**

* * *

 _Next day, at the Loud House..._

The promised day had arrived, and Rita immediately went to answer the door when she heard somebody ring the doorbell. Once she opened the door, she saw Mrs. DiMartino, standing outside.

"Oh, hello DiMartino," Rita greeted, earning a nod from the woman. "Sorry, I didn't expect you to come so soon. Give me a moment and I'll tell Luan and-"

"Just Luan, if it's possible," DiMartino suddenly remarked. "I don't want to risk my car breaking down 'cause I'm taking too many people to my house."

"Oh, don't worry, she'll just come with Luna," Rita replied before whistling, which was bound to summon the duo eventually. "You see, those two are not only roommates, but nearly inseparable as well!"

" _Hmph, reminds me of a certain someone,_ " DiMartino thought before asking, with a happy tone, "So, can you tell me more about this Luna girl she's very close with?"

"Well, she thinks you're hot-"

"That's all I needed to hear."

Soon afterwards, Luna and Luan arrived, with Luna flinching and gasping upon seeing the Hispanic woman.

"Well, hello there, Mrs. DiMar-"

"I'm not going to go out on a date with you," DiMartino stated.

"-Tino," Luna finished somberly. "Anyway, how about we go to your house now?"

DiMartino eyed the teenagers, and after talking for a little bit longer, DiMartino and the teen girls left and walked to the woman's house. On their way there, DiMartino took a good look at Luan, which quickly caught the comedian's attention.

"Um, could you please stop staring at me, Mrs. DiMartino?" Luan nervously requested. "It's creeping me out a little."

"You look familiar." DiMartino said.

"W-What?! N-No way, you must be confusing me for someone else!" Luan hastily answered, while she thought, "There's no way she found out I'm her daughter, right?"

"Hmm..." DiMartino leaned closer. "No, you definitely look like someone I used to know."

"Mrs. D, whoever Luan looks like, it's probably just a coincidence!" Luna stated, trying to divert the attention. "I mean, who could Luan possibly look like?"

"Well, she kinda looks like-" and then the woman stopped. "Oh hey, we're here."

The duo followed soon afterwards, and took a look at the house. In particular, Luan almost seemed... Somberly nostalgic. Not that she got a lot of time to look like that, since DiMartino promptly dragged both her and Luna into the living room, where Giggles was playing a videogame. And once they were inside, the feeling of nostalgia Luan had was just... Gone.

"Oh hey girls!" Giggles greeted once she noticed the sisters. "I didn't knew you were coming right now!"

"I told you I was bringing them here a while ago," DiMartino remarked with a smile.

"I was too busy with the game to pay attention, sorry," Giggles turned to the musician. "Hey, Luna, wanna play this game with me?"

Luna raised an eyebrow, and before long, the rock star went off to enjoy the game with the clown girl, while Luan wandered off upstairs, with DiMartino giving her a stern look as she left. Once upstairs, she continued to walk until she reached a particular room at the end of the hallway.

Her bedroom.

The comedian slowly reached for the doorknob, and hesitated before opening the door... To find the room looked exactly the same as when she was younger. Her yellow polka dot bed, the Chuckles outfit-in both kid, teenager, and adult sizes-hanging next to the window, a "prank bucket list" on the closet.

Even a replica of Colonel Crackers on top of her drawer. That creepy son of a-

"This place is in top notch condition, even after so many years. It's clear DiMartino put a lot of effort into keeping this room clean and stuff," Luan scanned the room, feeling even more nostalgic than before. "But, why would she even-"

"I always hoped that I would find you again."

Luan turned around, and saw Mrs. DiMartino, who held back her tears as she walked to her and continued:

"I always held hope that you were still alive, somewhere, and that once we met again, that I could convince you to go back home. Back to your real family."

Once she reached her daughter, DiMartino wiped off her tears and added:

"But I... I never really thought you would go so far as to abandon us for another family."

"W-Well, what was I supposed to do?!" Luan snapped in a panic. "I ruined a birthday party with the pyrotechnics, the birthday kid got third degree burns all over their body! The police got involved! What was I supposed to do, stay back and watch the birthday boy or girl or whatever crying at my face?!"

"Why are you talking about yourself as if you were a different person?" DiMartino questioned. "Luan, the birthday party you ruined was _your_ birthday party."

Upon hearing that bombshell, Luan's eyes grew wide as she seemingly collapsed soon afterwards, with Mrs. DiMartino catching her before she hit the ground. It wasn't long before Luan recovered consciousness, and she shed a couple tears as DiMartino put her down on her bed.

"I'm sorry I had to tell you so bluntly, but I needed to make sure you knew the truth," DiMartino brushed the comedian's hair as she further explained. "But, I'm afraid it's true. The birthday party that marked both your and Chuckles' "disappearance" was your own birthday party."

"That's not how I remember it," Luan answered as she grabbed her forehead. "In fact, I can't remember the birthday party at all. I skip straight to me running away, and everything else is... Blank..."

"You most likely blocked the memory of it," DiMartino answered. "I wouldn't blame you. In fact, I would call you lucky; You and Chuckles get to block out the memory, while I'm left tormented thanks to it for several years. Heck, it's quite likely she's even dead at this point."

"But I'm still alive!" Luan said, trying to calm down her true mother.

"Yes, Luan _Loud_ is still alive, but Luan _DiMartino_..." the Latin-American looked away and sighed, "I don't know where she is, but... I wanna see her again."

With that said, Luan and DiMartino exchanged one last look before tearfully embracing, and as they hugged, Luan couldn't help but think:

" _Mom..._ _I'm sorry..._ "


	7. Talking to Myself

_Next day, at the Loud House..._

Luna and Luan were at their bedroom, with Luna playing some sick tunes on her guitar while Luan rested on her bed, looking strictly at the ceiling as she remembered the distraught look Mrs. DiMartino had on her face as she and Luna walked back home after their visit.

"Yeah! Brand new record!" Luna exclaimed as she finished player her music. "Hey Luan, something tells me that game Giggles showed me really helped me with my shredding, what do ya think?"

"Mom... I didn't knew I hurt you that much..." Luan remarked to herself, grabbing her forehead as she started shedding tears. "If only I had known earlier-"

"Love?"

Luan jumped up-hitting the ceiling in the process-and turned around to see Luna looking at her with a worried look. "I just asked you if my shredding had improved thanks to Giggles. Her game was shredding-related, after all."

"Oh, uh, y-yeah, you definitely improved!" Luan answered before laying on her bed and turning away from Luna. "N-Now, please leave me alone, I have to think about something."

"Were you crying just now?" Luna suddenly realized, and blurted, causing the comedian to flinch. "Luan, if there's something that's bothering you, then you don't need to hide it from me, you can tell me what it is and I'll help you. I mean, you told me your real identity, so I can assure you whatever revelation you have for me-"

Luan turned back to look at Luna with a tearful face, "DiMartino's my mother."

Luna's smile slowly turned from "happy and confident" to "wait what?" in a couple of seconds, followed by the musician blatantly stating, "W-Well, that's something I wasn't expecting to find out this soon."

And then she realized what that meant. "Wait, doesn't that mean Giggles is your sister, then? And your real sister, at that?"

Luan facepalmed. "Great, another thing to worry about!"

"Sorry for bringing that up, I really need to watch what I say more often," Luna chuckled, scratching the back of her head. "Now, I have to ask, why didn't you tell me DiMartino was your mother yesterday?"

"I neither had the time, nor the heart to do it," Luan sighed. "You looked so happy after the visit, and my moment with DiMartino was really upsetting, so I wasn't feeling like bringing it up. Just like how I wasn't feeling like worrying about the Chuckles impostor-"

"There's a Chuckles impostor?" Luna tilted her head, only to get an "you can't be serious" glare from Luan. "Oh right, the one from the factory! Now I remember! And now that you mention it, she did say she had something in store for Royal Woods."

Upon hearing that, Luan suddenly got an idea, and smiled. "Luna, could you please get out of the room? I need to talk to myself."

Luna tilted her head and frowned. "You mean as in-"

"No, not as in literally talk to myself like some crazy person," Luan sighed. "I mean as in, let me rest so I can go to my mind, and talk with Chuckles."

"Are you sure that's a good idea, love?" Luna brushed Luan's hair. "I mean, last time you met her, it was in a nightmare that required you to sleep with me to deal with it."

"Even if our meeting is unpleasant, I still have things to discuss with her, specially now that we brought up the impostor Chuckles," Luan put on a reassuring look. "So now, if you could please leave me alone, I'd appreciate it."

Luna nodded with a slight smile, then promptly obliged and left. Luan fell asleep soon afterwards, and when she "woke up," she found herself sitting on a chair, with a table with a cake and some dessert on it. And also a couple of fireworks next to the cake.

"You remember now, don't you?"

Luan turned to the source of the voice, and saw none other than Chuckles-dressed like Luan's former clown self-staring at Luan with extreme prejudice. Not that the comedian was affected. In fact, she seemed rather... Stoic.

"This is the birthday party where you ran away from your life as Luan DiMartino," Chuckles remarked as the table morphed to now only hold the fireworks, with the cake and dessert suspended in the air. "Our birthday party, according to mom."

Luan just nodded, and Chuckles grabbed the fireworks.

"There were two variations of fireworks available, a normal one, and a facial one," Chuckles showed the fireworks; the normal one was red, while the facial one was yellow. "We meant to use the normal one in order to show off, and the super one would later be used to create our face in fireworks as the party's finale. Sadly, we picked the wrong one."

Luan nodded once more, though with notable regret.

"So, we decided to try the "fire breath" trick."

Chuckles threw the facial fireworks in the sky, then blew some fire onto it, causing it to blow up into a fireworks version of Luan's face. And in that instant, memories flashed through Luan's head, which were shown in the background:

First, Luan-back then Chuckles-leaped back in fear and crashed through the table, causing the cake and dessert to fly off and land on the ground. And not only that, some of the firework dispersed... And hit the normal fireworks.

Next, Luan watched as the normal fireworks activated and went off flying at random, burning a bit of the grass but, miraculously enough, not hurt any of the partygoers. However, a younger DiMartino still decided to go back home and take out a fire extinguisher.

Finally, as the fires were being put out, Luan watched all over the place to see her mistakes: Crying kids, the ground burning, cake and desserts destroyed and on the floor, and basically, one birthday party. Her birthday party ruined. And it was all her fault. And on the verge of crying, the clown girl got up, ran away, and the rest of the memories went off as normal until the background suddenly turned back... To the DiMartino house backyard.

"Is that how it happened?"

Luan turned back to Chuckles, who was back to her "Luan but with two ponytails" look. She still had a stern look at her new self, but there was some slight worry underneath it.

"Yeah, I remember now," Luan answered without hesitation.

"And what does this tell you, Luan Loud?" Chuckles inquired. "What does this tell you about the consequences of what you've done?"

Luan frowned. "Ever since we left... Ever since I left, I thought mom would just disown me. And yet, she kept my room exactly the same as how it was, for so many years."

Chuckles rolled her eyes. "It's like what I've been telling you, us running away did far more harm than good. Not only for us, but for our original family."

Luan remained silent as Chuckles continued:

"Listen, first, an impostor of our identity comes out of nowhere and threatens to do something horrible this April Fools Day, and now, you have seen what mom did after you ran away: She held on hope you'd return, only to see you had thrown away your original identity."

And then came a question:

"What more do you need to see before you're convinced to try and make ammends? Before you decide to stop being a Loud, and return to being a DiMartino?"

Luan stood up, and with a confident tone, she answered:

"Nothing."

Naturally, Chuckles was confused, "Excuse me?"

"I've managed to get my thoughts together," Luan shook her head. "I've done everything wrong up to this point: Instead of things getting better because I ran away, they got worse. Instead of mom being angry at me for ruining my own birthday party, she's both angry and devastated because not only did I run away, but I was adopted by an entirely different family! And as if that wasn't enough, there's a copycat of my old identity running around who's planning something on-"

Luan and Chuckles exchanged looks as they stated in unison:

"April Fools Day."

The duo exchanged looks, and soon enough, Luan nervously rubbed her arm while Chuckles... Smiled. And it wasn't a smug or malicious smile, but a confident one.

"So... C-Chuckles, I know you prefer to-"

"Say no more. I'll accept the truce."

Upon hearing her original self say that, Luan turned to look at Chuckles, arms folded and with a confident grin, giving her a thumbs up. "Why take you over and try ruin your reputation on April Fools Day, when we can reveal the faker's identity and return to the world in the most glorious fashion?!"

Luan looked at the ground with doubt. "But... Is it necessary to reveal who we really are?"

Chuckles put a hand in Luan's shoulder. "We both know the only way to stop our faker from continue stealing our identity, is for us to reveal who we really are, then unmask her for the world to see. It may be hard, it may be difficult, but we still have to try."

Luan looked back up to see Chuckles giving her a reassuring smile. Upon seeing that, Luan smiled for a moment before her smile turned into a confident smirk. "This April Fools Day..."

The pair shook hands, and finished in unison:

"The joke will be on her!"


	8. Battle of Comedians

**And here we are everybody, the penultimate chapter of Runaway Clown: A Dramedy! The next chapter will be the finale, and if people do ask for it, another chapter will follow to serve as an epilogue of sorts. And before you say "Why aren't you thanking anybody from following this story?", that will be for the final chapter, I just feel like that's for the better.**

 **Anyway, here we go!**

* * *

 _April Fools Day, Loud House..._

The dreaded holiday known as April Fools Day had finally arrived. It was this day where "Chuckles" promised to pull off a gigantic prank in the city of Royal Woods, and of course, the Loud house and several other people were preparing for the inevitable joke by hiding in whatever bunker they could. They even put on some armor just in case!

However, there was one of them missing: Luan.

"W-Wait, where's Luan?!" Luna exclaimed, looking around in a panic.

"Elder sister, we can't allow Luan to enter the bunker, remember?" Lisa pointed out, with the rest of the family nodded in agreement. "Yes, we have to hide from the Chuckles' incoming prank, but we also have to worry about Luan! You know how she acts whenever this holiday comes!"

"But if we don't let her in, she's going to be caught in the prank's crossfire!" Luna promptly pointed out herself. "I know Luan is a fearsome person in April Fools Day, but does she really deserve that?"

The family fell silent and looked away, seemingly not having a retort for Luna's statement. However, their attention was soon caught when somebody opened the bunker's door.

It was Luan, with a stern look and a frown.

"Is everybody here?" she asked, taking a look around.

"Yes, everybody but you!" Luna answered, walking towards Luan while everybody else hid deeper into the bunker. "Now come on, you have to enter before the prank happens!"

Luan shook her head and stated, "No, I'm not going in."

Luna gasped and took a step back, while the rest of the family sighed in relief before joining in her surprise.

"Y-You're not coming with us?" Luna asked, earning a nod from the comedian. Understandably, she grew worried. "Love, whatever Chuckles is planning to do, it's not something a normal comedian, or a normal person in general, could reasonably survive unscathed! Who knows what could happen to you if you stay outside!"

"Do you think I don't know that?" Luan replied, before walking to the bunker's entrance. "Luna, this is probably going to be one of the worst decisions I've ever done in my life..."

Then she stopped, and turned to her family to give them a reassuring smile.

"But I have do something about it."

With that said, the comedian left the bunker, and the house soon after, followed by the family coming out of their safe spot to follow the comedian.

 _Later, at the Royal Woods square..._

The Loud family stopped in the middle of the Royal Woods square, where a lot of people were gathered around the tall building that was the city hall. Not that they paid attention to the people, though, they had to find Luan, and fast!

"Okay, can anybody see Luan around here?!" Luna exclaimed as she looked around.

"I can see tons of people, but no Luan in sight!" Lincoln answered.

"Hey, do you think that's her literally up there?" Lori pointed out as she literally pointed at the top of the city hall.

Everybody looked up, but no, the person at the very top of the city hall wasn't the Luan they knew at all. In fact, judging from the laughter that came afterwards, it was somebody much, much worse.

It was Chuckles.

"Greetings, citizens of Royal Woods!" the giggling clown woman shouted at the top of her lungs, catching everybody's attention. "As I've promised today's the day I'm bringing you, my biggest prank yet! A prank that will go down in history, as the greatest prank ever done in Royal Woods!"

Soon enough, police cars arrived at the scene and formed a barricade, with some police officers coming out and aiming their stun guns at Chuckles. Naturally, everybody got worried when they saw their arrival, but nobody were more scared than the Loud family, who continued their search for Luan.

"Oh great, the police are getting involved now?!" Luna said in horror. "We really need to find Luan right now!"

"This is the Royal Woods Police Forces!" the chief police officer shouted through the megaphone. "We got you surrounded, Chuckles! You better come down here before we force you to surrender!"

The comedian, however, just cackled like a complete maniac. "Oh, police officers, whether it's them appearing when they're needed, or when they try too hard to be taken seriously, they're quite good at bringing some good laughs. Too bad them appearing in the first place won't be able to top my prank-"

"You're not pulling pranks anymore, Chuckles!"

Everybody gasped and Chuckles turned around to see Luan, standing nearby her, with her arms folded and an intense, furious glare being thrown at her direction.

"Well, it was abound to happen! Looks like a party pooper decided to come uninvited!" Chuckles exclaimed, earning a furious look from Luan. "Hey, you look familiar somehow. Oh right! You're the one who's always causing those horrifying pranks, aren't you? You're the one they call..."

Chuckles narrowed her eyes. "Luan Loud?"

And as the wind blew strongly, and everybody watched the scene-including the Loud family-Luan took a deep breath and confessed:

"No... Not Luan Loud."

The comedian took off her scrunchie, letting her hair wave in the wind. She then took out another scrunchie, and put both of them on, giving her two ponytails this time.

"Luan DiMartino, also known as the original Chuckles."

Everybody gasped in shock and disbelief, specially the Loud family, who couldn't believe Luan's secret identity had been revealed. Add on to the fact some may not have been aware of Luan's adoption, or had forgotten it to the point it seemed like there was no such thing, and their world basically fell apart.

"What a shocker, am I right? The original Chuckles has come to stop her impostor! That's me by the way," "Chuckles" scoffed at the audience, only to grow stern as she turned back to Luan. "I had the feeling you would come out eventually. I just didn't think you'd be stupid enough to reveal yourself in the middle of such a big scene! You do realize you can't escape punishment now, right?"

Luan grabbed her shirt and clutched. "Of course I'm aware of that! After all the harmful pranks I've done, after all the people I've humilliated, after all the crimes I've done just for the sake of a joke, I'll be lucky to not be rotting in a prison cell for the rest of my life by the end of this."

Then, she tightened her grip. "But as long as I get to take you down as well, it'll be worth it!"

"Oho, Luan darling..."

Chuckles smirked.

"I'll make sure this sweet victory has a spicy bitterness to it!"

Chuckles promptly shot a "beam" of water from her flower, with Luan retaliating by shooting a "water beam" of her own while she checked her inventory. Once she found the pies, she took out a pair of them and smiled before throwing them at Chuckles, who quickly quit the "water beam" struggle and dodged the pies, sliding down the top of the building down to the street.

Luan then took out several whoopee cushions and threw them at Chuckles' way, only for the impostor to narrowly miss every single one of them, right before she shot her "water beam" once again. Luckily, Luan managed to dodge this and the whoopee cushions as she slid down the same way as Chuckles, before leaping high up in the air and throwing... Seemingly harmless cans at the impostor.

However, once they started shaking, Chuckles realized what they really were and jumped away before several toy snakes burst out of the cans, and somehow distracted the impostor long enough to allow Luan to get behind the prankster and aim for her back.

Chuckles could barely process this before Luan touched her back... Or so she thought! For Chuckles dodged at the last moment and grabbed Luan's arm, before flipping her and then forcing her to touch her face, making her whole body vibrate for a moment before revealing the girl had a joy buzzer on her palm.

"A joy buzzer? Seriously, darling?" Chuckles scoffed before throwing the brunette joker on the ground. "Did you really think you could take me down with one of the easiest pranks in the book?"

"I wasn't trying to take you down with that prank," Luan corrected as she got up, then smirked. "In fact, I was just distracting you!"

Chuckles looked down and saw her shoes were suddenly on fire. She managed to take them off, though, and use her joke flower as a fire extinguisher.

"The hotfoot prank, huh?" Chuckles said, with a slight hint of disappointment. "You really think it's worth it to pull such a risky prank against me?"

"You're a wanted criminal, Chuckles! Every prank in existence is fair game, as long as it helps the police catch you!" Luan smirked once more. "And speaking of the police..."

The clown woman took a look around to see some police officers surrounding her, all aiming their stun guns at their direction. However, in the face of the seemingly inevitable capture, Chuckles smirked as the stun guns shot electric shocks-these were fancy version, apparently-only for Chuckles to dodge them at the last second, making them hit another officer in the process.

And so, the battle of the comedians continued, with Chuckles throwing several banana peels onto the ground and trying to get Luan to step on them. And she did step on one of them... But she didn't slip.

"Wait, what?!" the clown woman snapped.

"Silly Chuckles, everybody knows that fresh banana peels aren't slippery enough!" Luan smirked and reached for her back. "If you want to see the a- _peel_ , try old, layered peels!"

However, Chuckles just dodged the peels and took out a pie, which she prepared to throw... Until another pie was thrown, clashing directly into Chuckles' pie. With that done, the clown woman turned around to see Giggles, standing nearby, with a determined glare on her face.

Naturally, the clown lady wasn't pleased.

"Is. This. Some kind of _joke_?!"

And without hesitation, Giggles took out a balloon sword and leaped straight for Chuckles, who blocked the toy sword with a balloon sword of her own. And needless to say, Luan, while grateful, was also baffled by this turn of events.

"Great, not only did one party pooper come uninvited, another one has decided to join her ranks!" Chuckles hissed as she slowly overpowered Giggles' balloon sword. Though logically speaking, she should've overpowered her a long time ago. "What's your name, and why do you dare to get in the middle of our conflict?!"

"My name, is Giggles DiMartino!" Giggles proclaimed as she tried her hardest not to let herself be beaten. "And I'm not going to let you, hurt my older sister!"

And as the duo continued to clash their balloon swords, Luan took the chance to get up and catch her breath, before asking:

"Giggles, why are you doing this?"

This caught both clowns' attention.

"I thought you'd want nothing to do with me after abandoning you and mom years ago," Luan continued, looking at the ground in regret. "And besides, Chuckles is my impostor, she's my fight!"

"Are you kidding me?! You finally admit you're my sister, the sister I lost years ago, and you do so while planning to fight your alter ego's impersonator! I lost you one time and I don't plan to lose you again!" Giggles answered, making Luan look back up. "And besides, you know how families work like!"

The clown girl turned back to the clown woman, and stated with confidence:

"You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us!"

Chuckles gritted her teeth and continued to clash, while Luan smiled and frowned, feeling flattered by her sister's words.

And she wasn't alone, since Luna nodded and narrowed her eyes as she walked towards the battlefield.

And then her only brother got in her way.

"Luna, what are you doing?!" Lincoln exclaimed, grabbing Luna's wrist. "It's too dangerous!"

"Giggles's risking her life to make sure Luan wins this fight," the rocker sternly answered as she easily broke off from Lincoln's grasp. "I don't know about you, but even if Luan's not our sister, she's been our family for years, and as Giggles said: Chuckles messed with one of us, so she's gonna mess with all of us!"

The musician went through the police barricade, and exchanging looks of determination, the rest of the Loud siblings ran off to help. Before long, not only was Chuckles dealing with Giggles, but with all of the Loud siblings, who promptly pulled their own pranks as Luan watched from the sidelines:

First, Lincoln called her attention with a shout:

"Hey, Chuckles! Wanna hear a joke?!"

The clown woman pushed Giggles away and growled, "What is it?!"

"Comedy."

Chuckles raised an eyebrow. "I don't get it."

Lincoln smirked. "Exactly."

Immediately recognizing what the joke was, the clown lady power walked her way towards the boy, only for Lana to slide in and throw a pair of mud balls.

"Aw, don't be so _mud_ dy!"

Chuckles dodged the mud balls, but was caught when Lola threw some glitter at her face.

"After all, we're _pretty_ sure about something!"

The woman groaned in pain as she walked back, then fell backwards upon slipping on something: Lucy.

"We ain't leaving Luan in the _dark_."

The performer got up and got ready to throw a punch, only for her arm to be caught by some fabric, held by Leni.

"That's not the Loud _fashion_!"

And then her remaining arm was caught by some cables, held by Lisa.

"You face one of us, you face all of us! And yes, I know I didn't throw a pun there, but I'm not into that stuff anyway!"

Soon after, Lori, her arms folded behind her back, walked to Chuckles and stated with a smug tone:

"So let's literally _get the message_ across."

Before pushing Chuckles into the ground, with Lisa and Leni releasing her arms to let her fully fall. And the instant she tried to get back up, Lynn ran after her and yelled:

"We'll give you a _run_ for your money!"

One crash later, Chuckles was exhausted on the ground, prompting Luna to shout:

"Everybody on top of her!"

And so the Loud siblings dogpiled Chuckles one after another, with Giggles even joining in for some good measure. But it was clear that this would only be a brief distraction for the clown woman, so Luan promptly got an idea and took out a whoopee cushion... Only to take out several more of the things and pile them up on the ground, just in time too before Chuckles broke free of the Loudpile.

With that done, Chuckles caught her breath, now well and truly furious, but not focusing clearly, allowing Luan to get behind her and held her with her arms as the duo walked towards the pile of whoopee cushions.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Chuckles yelled.

And with one final leap of faith, Luan answered sternly:

"Defeating you once and for all!"

A massive explosion happened, with the dust cloud covering the entire district as the sounds of some fabric being tore were heard, followed by a pair of shots, and then two screams of pain. And once the dust settled and everybody caught their breath, they saw a shocking sight:

A tranquilizer dart, on Chuckles' exposed arm, with the ripped fabric being held in Luan's arm.

"Yeah! Finally, the impostor-!" Luna chirped, only to realize something odd about the scene. "W-Wait a minute..."

Soon enough, everybody noticed that Luan also had a tranquilizer dart on her arm.

"No!" the Loud family exclaimed in horror.

The pigtailed comedian shivered as she turned to see the dart on her arm, then gritted her teeth as she turned to the police officers, with a look of pure fury as she snapped:

"Why?! Why would you shoot me too?!"

Chuckles spoke, "Because, Luan..."

The comedian turned back to the clown lady, who took off her mask to reveal her real identity: Mrs. DiMartino. And though the entire place shook in shock, nobody was more shocked than Luan, who shivered as the woman grabbed her shoulder and said:

"We _both_ have consequences to face."

With that said, both the woman and the pig tailed joker fell unconscious, with everything going to black as the officers approached them, and Luan could hear the Louds running up to her side...


	9. That's All Folks!

**And here we are, ladies and gentlemen, the grand finale of Runaway Clown: A Dramedy. You may be wondering why I'm ending it now instead of tuesday. Well, it just so happens that tuesday's Halloween! And I have another grand finale planned for that day, so I'll just have to end RC: AD right now.**

 **Before I end it, though, I want to thank everybody who favorited and followed this fic. I honestly didn't think it would get this popular. In fact, I kinda thought people would just dismiss it because, it wasn't about Lucy or Lincoln being the adopted ones, but Luan.**

 **And while I wouldn't be surprised if the number of "Lincoln is Adopted" stories does go down after "Not A Loud" (Stupid explanation or not, it's the only thing we got so far people, we can't deny it until later evidence is provided. And this being a Slice of Life, that's likely not gonna happen.), Lucy still seems like the more logical choice to be adopted (We've never seen Great Grandma Harriet as an old woman, just as a child, so unless another picture of her in an older body is shown, I'm just gonna assume she died a child), so picking Luan to be the focus of an adopted story sounded wild.**

 **I'm so glad you guys proved me wrong. :)**

 **And don't worry, I'll keep my stories coming. In fact, I know who to focus on for the next "Loud is Adopted" story. A certain... Luna Loud.**

 **Anyway, off to the grand finale! Remember, read and review, and enjoy!"**

* * *

A couple hours later, at the Royal Woods police station, Luan slowly woke up and yawned to see she was in the reception area, with various officers walking in and out as they headed to do their work.

"W-Where am I?" Luan asked, shivering as she scanned her surroundings. "Last thing I remember is facing off against Chuckles, who revealed herself to be my mother, my real mother at that, and then the police officers shot a tranquilizer dart at me. Was all that just a dream?"

"No, that was pretty much reality."

Luan flinched and turned around to see none other than her mother, Mrs. DiMartino, sitting right next to her, looking a little less dizzy than her.

"M-Mom?" the comedian asked, slowly growing more frightened as she added, "Where's everybody else? Giggles, Luna, the Louds, where are they?!"

"Relax, they're waiting outside for us," DiMartino revealed. "We're staying here in order to rest for a bit before we come out."

The woman took a deep breath, turned to her daughter, and answered:

"And because I have so many things to explain to you now."

"Oh, you better believe it," Luan replied, grabbing her head. "I mean, where do I even start? Maybe where are we right now?"

"At the police station," DiMartino answered. "You see, I had to talk with some certain... Associates, since my plan to find and apprehend you worked well enough."

"Wait, you were working with the police all this time?" the comedian raised an eyebrow. "But how could you be working with the police, when you just revealed a while ago that you were Chuckles?"

This brought yet another question to mind. "Speaking of which, why did you impersonate Chuckles in the first place?"

DiMartino chuckled, but quickly calmed down and took a deep breath before saying:

"It's a long story..."

 _Mrs. DiMartino's flashback..._

The younger DiMartino stood on the ground, scanning her surroundings for any signs of Luan.

"Shortly after the incident, I entered in a panic looking all over for you. I just couldn't accept the idea that you had just... up and left."

Then the scene showed the police officers bringing Mrs. DiMartino... Luan's Chuckles outfit, which she looked at with horror.

"I nearly lost hope, however, when they brought me back your Chuckles outfit. The outfit I sew just for you... and that was all they could find..."

The woman narrowed her eyes and snatched the outfit.

"I didn't give up, though."

One thunder roaring later, the scene changed to the streets of Royal Woods, littered with "missing" posters, with none other than the younger Luan on the cover.

"I tried my hardest to find you again, or see if somebody could find you again. I put missing posters, I talked with the police to start an investigation."

Without warning, the scene changed to show DiMartino fixing the Chuckles outfit.

"I even fixed your outfit, hoping that you would be found soon... but you weren't."

With a quick time skip, there was now a larger version of the outfit next to the kid one.

"I still held hope, to the point I made a teen-sized version of your outfit. If they couldn't find you as a kid, they probably would find you as a teenager, right? But, that wasn't the case."

The scene now showed DiMartino banging her head against the wall, pulling her hair in exasperation.

"Tired of the apparent incompetence of the police, I was just ready to throw the towel... when I saw it."

The tv turned on, to show the news channel.

"A news report on a particular incident at the Loud house, one that seemingly happened "every" April Fools Day... which begun a couple months after you had disappeared."

DiMartino narrowed her eyes, and then it cut to about a year or two later, with DiMartino watching the news report on her couch.

"I made sure to keep myself up to date with the reports, to make sure it was you. But when I heard about what happened recently at the hotel, I was 50% sure it just had to be you."

Next scene showed DiMartino speaking with the police at the police station.

"Although I was hesitant to go to the police once more, what with having proven to me a year or so ago that they weren't good enough at their jobs, I still decided to strike a deal with them."

The scene showed a sneaky DiMartino explaining her plan with a smile.

"I wasn't entirely sure back then, but just in case I was right, in exchange for lowering your sentence to community service, I would dress up as Chuckles to bring back memories of what you left behind."

Next thing they knew, the police shook hands with DiMartino, sealing the deal.

"And though they were hesitant, it wasn't long before the officers agreed to my proposition."

The final image before the flashback ended was of DiMartino, now wearing the Chuckles outfit, and with a determined smile.

"And that's how I started my plan to finally bring you back, after all this time..."

 _Back at the present..._

"I guess, now that everything's said and done and I said my plan out loud, I guess I went with something far too complex, huh?" DiMartino brushed the back of her head sheepishly. "I mean, I bet if I had just gone to the Loud House the moment I found out who you were, and told the whole story, I would've convinced you to come back home, right?"

"...No, that wouldn't have been the case," Luan looked at the ground somberly. "I felt so ashamed for what I did during my birthday, that I just wanted to erase every trace of history I had as Chuckles. I mean, I set things on fire, some of my friends wound up getting burned, and even the police showed up!"

DiMartino frowned. "Sweetie..."

"And besides, most of our family's used to weird things, but hearing that I'm just adopted and the infamous Chuckles person, they just wouldn't fathom it!" Luan continued. "And even for the ones that do know the truth, which would be most of them anyway, I don't think they'd want to leave me so easily. We've been together for several years now. Being separated... Would devastate them..."

"And, to be honest, I probably would've still thought you didn't love me or that you had some motive for wanting me back," Luan sighed. "But, with you revealing yourself to be Chuckles, I guess that view changed."

DiMartino smiled. "You now realize how much I love you and want you back by my side?"

Luan burst out laughing, though instead of her laughter sounding cheerful, she sounded... scared. "No! I just now know that whatever motive you may have for getting me back, you're determined to reach it!"

The woman smile immediately turned into a frown. "You still think I don't love you?"

"Mom, how could you ever love me again after everything I did?" Luan shook her head and sighed. "I ruined my own birthday party, I ran away from the police, I changed my whole identity and kept the facade for years!"

Suddenly, Luan remembered something, and grabbed her hair in shock. "And that's not even mentioning the horrors I did under my inner Chuckles' influence every April Fools Day since then!"

"Come to think of it, that was one thing the police officers refused to elaborate on when they listed the reasons why you had such a big sentence," the woman frowned. "Just what did you do?"

"What didn't I do?!" Luan sighed and rubbed her head. "Even if you did manage to convince the cops to only give me community service, I'm still going to have to do three or four years of it before I'm forgiven, and that may not even be enough to some people!"

With that said and done, Luan lowered her arms and looked away, not wanting to see her mother's face at the moment. "How could you love me after all I did?"

After a couple seconds in complete silence, DiMartino put a hand on her daughter's shoulder and stated:

"Because I understand."

Luan flinched, and gave her mother a confused look as she explained:

"Sure, the way you did it was a bit extreme, but I can see what you were trying to do. You felt guilty, but you didn't know what to do, you didn't even know how to process what just happened, so you tried to start all over again. But... Your inner self wanted to pay for what you did. You wanted to make amends, and you thought that if the police caught you, that would be enough."

Luan started shedding tears as her mother continued.

"But you also wanted to be reunited with us. Me, you, your sister... You wanted to be a part of our family again. A happy family at that. So, you always escaped from the police, because you knew that if the next time we met would be with you behind prison cells, let's just say it would be a heartbreaking reunion."

The comedian looked at the ground, just as another familiar voice spoke:

"Hello..."

Luan looked back up and saw it was none other than Giggles, still in her clown costume.

"Sister."

"Gi... Gretchen..." Luan said, rubbing her arm as she added, "Were you in on this too?"

"Yes and no," Giggles answered, rolling her eyes. "I did knew that mom was going to do something with the police, and how she was looking for you since you left, but I didn't think she was the Chuckles impersonator!"

And then, Luan remembered something.

"Ronnie Anne and Bobby! They-"

"Were part of this thing too," DiMartino pointed out. "Once I took them from their house, I revealed myself to them, how my plan was going to work, and what I needed them to do. They were a bit angry that I forcefully took them from their house, but once they saw the opportunity to end your April fools day madness once and for all, they joined without a second thought."

"Huh, they were pretty good actors then," Luan looked back at the ground. "Now, we just need to figure out what to tell the Louds. They've been my family for years, but I do want to return to you and be the family we used to be again..."

Giggles reached for her back and took out a suitcase. "I may have an idea..."

 _Right outside the Police Station..._

The Loud family, most notably the Loud siblings, sat outside the station, waiting anxiously for Luan to come out. In particular, Luna was so anxious for Luan's arrival, that she paced back and forth, arms folded behind her back.

"She's been there for nearly a half hour now," Luna remarked, not focusing on anything in particular.

"Calm down, everybody," Lincoln said, catching his sisters' attention. "Luan just found out something incredibly shocking, she's probably not going to come out of there for a while. We just need to wait, okay? Besides, most of us already knew she was adopted, so-"

"Lincoln, even if most of us already literally knew that, our world was still shaken by discovering DiMartino was her mother all along!" Lori growled at her brother. "Aren't you shocked as well?!"

"Of course I am, how was I supposed to figure out the teacher I once had a crush on was the mother of one of my sisters?" the boy replied with a shrug. "But, freaking out about it won't help anybody. Not us, not Luan, nobody. So, let's just wait and-"

Without warning, the Louds heard the doors to the station opening, and from there came out Luan, with DiMartino and Giggles following behind. And of course, the first thing the comedian was met with was a massive family hug from her adoptive siblings.

"Luan, you don't know how happy we are that you're okay!" Lana exclaimed before licking Luan's cheek like a puppy.

"I'm happy about that too," Luan replied, giggling as she soon realized that all of her adoptive siblings were there. "Oh hey, you're all here?"

"Of course we're all here!" Luna answered before the Louds separated from Luan. "What kind of siblings would we be if we weren't there to support you after whatever happened at the police station. Specially given Lisa's prediction-"

"Wait, you predicted that I would go to the police station someday?" the joker turned to the prodigy. "Seriously?"

"Luan, I may love you just like all of our siblings do, but after the kind of things you did each April Fools Day, I simply had to analyze the situation and see the probability of such a worst case scenario," Lisa took out a paper and handed it to Luan. The paper was an analysis on the girls' pranks and jokes. "According to my initial investigation, there was a 25% that you would be arrested, but the percentage increased to 30, then 50, and a whopping 85 for your subsequent prank sprees. Seriously, if you had gone through one more pranking spree, you would've been captured for sure."

"But that doesn't matter right now!" Lola pointed out, brushing Lisa's remark off. "Everything's okay now, the impostor Chuckles has been unmasked, and though our perspective of Luan has irrevocably changed forever, I'm sure we can learn to live with it."

The diva grabbed the joker's arm as she got up. "Now come on, Luan, let's go home!"

However, just as the little princess tried to drag Luan with her, the comedian easily left her grasp and shook her head with a saddened look.

"You're not coming back with us?" Lola asked, tears forming in her eyes.

Luan turned back to her mother, who nodded, then back to the Louds, who all looked like they were going to cry their hearts out. So, the comedian took a deep breath, and explained what she meant:

"I'm afraid I can no longer be the Luan Loud you know and love. I revealed myself to be Luan DiMartino. To be Chuckles. I just can't go back to the life anymore. I went to that life in order to escape from the life I used to have, but now that i've seen the grief I caused... the pain mom and Giggles went through... and the fact that mom did all of this "Impostor Chuckles" thing just to get me back... it would be a slap in the face if I just went back to you, and acted like nothing happened."

"But we won't be the same without you!" Luna snapped, walking towards the comedian as she added, "Who's going to try and lighten up the situation with some humor, even if it's bad? Who's going to make us groan in annoyance with her silly puns?"

Then, grabbing Luan's hands, Luna finished, shedding a pair of tears:

"Who's going to be the one person who can bring a smile to our faces, even in the worst of days?"

Luna hugged Luan, and started to cry her heart out as the comedian patted her back, trying to comfort her.

"Somebody else will eventually take my place," Luan said, then quipped, "Specially if mom and dad. Hahaha, get it?"

"That laugh and "get it?" are going to be one of the things I miss about you the most," Luna and Luan separated. "You're going to miss us too?"

"But of course I will," Luan answered, sniffing and shedding a single tear. "Even if I caused you trouble every April Fools Day, even if we had our bad times, these past few years have been something incredible. Bringing laughter to you and many other people, learning how to pantomime, build my own business and even internet channel, it's all been a blast."

Luan paused, then walked to her mother and said, as she grabbed her hands:

"But it's time I catch up with all the time I lost. It's time I make equally unforgettable memories with my true family."

Mrs. DiMartino smiled and sniffed, though she did manage to hold back her tears. Luan then turned back to the Louds and said, "I hope you understand."

The siblings exchanged looks, not knowing what to say. However, they didn't need to say anything: Luan could just tell from the look on their faces that they didn't want her to go, they didn't want their comedic sister to leave their lives so suddenly, and even the only positive they could think about was that, with Luan no longer in the house, April Fools Day would no longer be a day the family would have to fight for their lives.

Come to think of it, since the Chuckles nonsense was dealt with, those days would probably be a lot more tolerable...

"We understand, Love."

Everybody turned to look at the one who said: Luna, who had tears running down her cheeks as she walked to the comedian.

"You came to us in hopes that you could try for a new life... try for a new approach... try to be someone else..." Luna grabbed Luan's hands. "But now that everybody knows who you are, now that everything's dealt with... you don't need to stay with us anymore... even if we really want you to stay."

Luan smiled, only for Lincoln to add, "And so, we brought you some gifts!"

"Wait, really?!" Luan chirped up.

"Of course we did, we wouldn't want you to leave with a frown, would we?" Luna whistled and gestured everybody to come closer. "Come on, everybody, give Luan your gifts!"

Lori was the first to hand her gift, which was a spare golf club. It wasn't all that glamorous, but Luan didn't seem to mind.

"I was going to give you something else, but then I figured that you would appreciate things that you could use as objects for your comedy routines," Lori explained. "So Luna and I literally convinced everybody to make sure their gifts could be used like that."

"I'm definitely going to find some use out of this," Luan swung the club for a while before saying, "Thanks, Lori, I appreciate it."

Lori gave the comedian a kiss on the forehead, and the next one to give their gift was Leni, who handed Luan flower-shaped shades.

"I was working on these two for a while, so I decided it was a good time to give them to you," the fashionista explained, winking as she added, "I'm sure you'll find these are, like, special in their own way."

Luan smiled, and closed her eyes before putting on the glasses, which promptly splashed her eyes. Once they stopped, the comedian chuckled as Leni took out another pair of shades and explained:

"I made two versions: One for jokes, and one for wear."

"I like these," Luan said. "Thanks, Leni."

The fashionista put up a wide smile, and left as the next one to give their gift _wasn't_ Luna, but Lynn, who showed Luan a familiar pink helmet.

"I found this laying on the attic, so I cleaned it up and thought you would like it!"

"It's the same helmet I used when I was practicing with my unicycle!" Luan chirped as she took and checked the helmet, before hugging the athlete. "Thanks so much, Lynn!"

Luan heard someone sniffing, and then separated from the jock to see tears running down her cheeks.

"Lynn, are you crying?" Luan asked, tilting her head.

Lynn took a deep breath. "No, I-I'm... I can't think of anything that doesn't sound gross, so yeah, I'm crying!"

The girl walked back to her siblings as Lucy was next to hand over a gift: this, of course, being a bouquet of flowers-wait what?

"To signify how your life as Luan Loud is over, and how your life as Luan DiMartino has been revived."

Oh, that makes more sense.

"Thanks a lot, Lucy," Luan crouched down and reached for her back. "And I got something very creepy for you too."

Luan took out a large princess pony plush toy from her back, and the goth immediately snatched the toy and squealed as she ran back to her siblings, hugging the toy as hard as she could while she ran.

Once she was back with them, Lola scoffed as Lana went next, "You know, Lucy, princess pony is the last thing a goth like you would normally have-"

"Shut up!" Lucy snapped, sounding so emotional, she actually made Lola flinch. "Luan gave this to me, and I'm going to keep it no matter what anybody says!"

Back with Lana, she reached for pigtails, and took out the hair ties holding them together, before handing them to Luan.

"But, Lana, I already have scrunchies," the comedian pointed out.

"I know, but, this was all I could think of that wasn't an animal or something gross," the plumber rubbed her arm and looked away.

"Hey, come on, don't be a downer," the joker smiled and took the hair ties. "I appreciate the gift, I really do. In fact..."

Luan took off her scrunchies and handed them to an amazed Lana. "I think these would look good on you."

Lana put on the scrunchies, and Luan put on Lana's hair ties. After sharing pleased looks, Lana went back to her siblings, and Lola went next, with her gift being... a tiara?

"Just like with Lana, this was all I could think of," the diva explained as Luan took the tiara and put it on. "Most of the things I got wouldn't be of any use to you, but hey, maybe you could use it in one of your comedy acts? Besides, I have a dozen or so spare tiaras, so I don't miss anything."

Luan flashed a happy smile and waved goodbye like the queen of England, making Lola chuckle as she left. Next up was a double act, one consisting of Lisa and Lincoln.

"I decided to team up with our brother unit in order to make an appropriate, non-hazardous gift to make sure we didn't sour your opinion on us," Lisa explained, only for her and Lincoln to extend their left arms towards Luan. "But all we could really think of was a simple hand shake, so, here you go."

The comedian could tell there was something fishy about the gift, mostly thanks to Lisa and Lincoln's wide smiles, but she smiled herself as she went along with the hand shakes... and felt a little vibration. And as the trio separated and laughed to their hearts' content, Lincoln and Lisa revealed the joy buzzers on their palms.

"More accurately, we decided to prank you!" Lisa said in the middle of her laughter.

"That's such an appropriate thing to do," the joker's laughter ceased a moment later. "Thanks a lot, everyone. Now, Luna, what do you have for me?"

All eyes focused on the rock star, who flinched and rubbed her arm as she explained:

"I was trying to come up with a song to say farewell, but the shock from the revelation of who your mother was, coupled with what happened mere moments ago and how anxious I was to see if you were okay, made it really difficult for me to focus. So, I eventually quit making the song altogether. Sorry."

"Oh, Luna, you didn't need to write me a song," Luan walked to the rocker and put a hand on her shoulder. "All you need to give me is something simple, something small, even, something that'll bring me back memories of you every time I see it."

Luna smiled in relief, only to stand shocked as Luan separated from her and put a hand on her pocket. She did this as she said, "And so, the best thing you could give me..."

She took out a joke flower, and showed it to Luna.

"Is the biggest, happiest smile you can make."

"You're... giving me... your joke flower?" Luna asked as she grabbed the joke flower, carefully so as to not set it off.

"What? No," Luan took out several more joke flowers, each colored for one specific Loud. "I'm giving joke flowers to all of you!"

The Loud kids all took and put on their joke flowers with delight, just as Lisa realized something: "Wait a minute, joke flowers require some sort of tinkering in order to work properly, and there's no way you could've made all these joke flowers during the short time you were at the station"

All eyes fell upon Luan.

"If you're suggesting that I took the extra time to create ten separate joke flowers, for my adoptive siblings, each with a specific color tailored to each and every single one of them, just in case I ever found myself in a situation where my status would be found, and I'd have to go back to my real family," Luan paused... "Then you're wrong, my little sis Gretchen over there had those joke flowers saved up on a suitcase."

"Well, giving them to you as presents wasn't my original idea," Giggles scratched the back of her head. "You see, because I had a feeling Luan wouldn't want to come back without taking the rest of you with her, I was thinking she was going to add you to our comedy troupe."

Luan shook her head. "That thought never crossed my mind."

"Why not?" Luna asked with utmost curiosity.

The comedian turned back to the Loud family, and snapped her fingers before joking:

"Guys, 3's a crowd, but 13's a Friday. Get it?"

The Loud siblings laughed out at the joke, and Luan, knowing them well, knew there had to be something more to it.

"Okay, why are you laughing? It wasn't even all that good."

Luna was the first whose laughter died down, and explained: "We thought you would like to hear our laughter one last time, as a family, before it becomes just a memory."

Luan rolled her eyes and took out something from her back. "Guys, let me show you something."

What she took out was a pamphlet, showing Luan, Giggles, and Mrs. DiMartino as their clown personas. Lincoln promptly read:

"Giggles, Chuckles, and Chortles, together, they're the funny box-busting comedy troupe of the Triple Jokers."

"Available for birthday parties, ceremonies, and any other events that may need some cheering up," Luan rolled up the pamphlet and handed it to the Louds. "If you ever feel like you need to cheer up, and if we're free, you can give us a call and we'll bring smiles to your faces! Be wary, though, 'cause we charge 20 dollars per hour."

Luan gave her adoptive siblings a wink, and everybody hugged her while the Loud parents went to Mrs. DiMartino, who raised an eyebrow as they approached her.

"I'm sorry we didn't give Luan back to you when we got the chance," Rita apologized.

"If we had found out earlier that you were her mother all along, we could've tried to come to an agreement, and not need all of this impostor Chuckles nonsense to happen," Lynn Sr. added.

"It's okay, everything came out well in the end, sad reunion and everything," Mrs. DiMartino replied, before whispering, "And, if I can be honest with you, this isn't the first time Luan has driven me nuts."

Rita chuckled. "Trust us, this isn't the first time she's driven us nuts either."

The adults laughed about it for a short moment, and then, DiMartino shook hands with both of them, and flashing a little smile, she reunited with Giggles and Luan, before asking:

"Are you ready to go back home, sweetheart?"

Luan separated from the Louds, and nodded, "I'm ready."

The sisters followed DiMartino to her car, a fairly large yellow truck, and went inside, with Giggles going to the backseat while Luan sat on the passenger seat. And as DiMartino got ready to drive off, Luan turned to the Louds and waved goodbye, with the Louds returning the wave soon afterwards. Then, DiMartino drove off back to their house...

And Luan was caught off-guard by what the Louds did next: They ran off after the truck, and continued to wave goodbye as they shouted words of both farewell and encouragement:

" _You're literally the best!_ "

" _We'll miss you!_ "

" _Remember us!_ "

" _Bring, like, lots of smiles!_ "

" _Good luck!_ "

" _Until next time!_ "

And many other such kind of words, which brought tears to Luan's eyes as Giggles spoke, "Wow, they really must've loved you. Are you sure you didn't want to stay with them?"

"No, Giggles, I couldn't stay with them anymore, even if I wanted to," Luan answered as she wiped off her tears. "As much as I'd love to remain with the Louds, it just would be a terrible thing for me to do: You've been looking for me for years, and you loved me and wanted me back so much you did all of this crazy plan!"

Luan reached for her back and took out a "triple jokers" pamphlet. "Besides, if my assumption is right, they'll probably be one of our more frequent customers from now on."

"Hey, as long as we get some money out of it, and you're happy, it's worth it," DiMartino sighed. "So, hey, we have an appointment for a birthday party next weekend, and I was going to ask you if you'd like to come-"

"You don't even need to ask, of course I'm coming along!" Luan chirped with joy. "I mean, it's the perfect time for the return of the Triple Jokers! Sure, I'm going to need time to adjust myself to the schedule and what routines you were going to do, but it shouldn't be anything I can't learn in a couple hours!"

"Haha! That's the Luan I know and missed so much!"

And so, the family continued to drive down the way, until they reached the DiMartino household. Once that was done, they all decided to get patched up-they just came out of a kinda messy fight, after all-and decided to begin the new family memories with the simplest of things: A family picture.

"Come sit with us, sweetheart," DiMartino called Luan as she and Giggles sat on the left and right side of the couch.

Though hesitant at first, Luan gathered enough courage to sit right in the middle, with her mother and sister throwing smiles at her direction. The instant she sat down, she took a look at her surroundings, and at the house she would live in for the rest of her days. It was smaller than the Loud house, that's for sure, and yet, the comedian didn't mind.

In fact... she probably liked it better this way.

"Everybody say cheese!" DiMartino exclaimed as the camera got ready to capture the moment.

The trio smiled, and Luan pulled her mother and sister into a hug before the picture was taken. This was definitely fridge material, if Luan hanging the picture on the fridge said anything, hehe.

"Okay, sweetheart, I'll cook dinner," DiMartino casually remarked as she cut some vegetables. "How about you go see your sister? I'm very sure you have a lot to catch up with her-"

Suddenly, Luan hugged DiMartino from behind, luckily not making her cut herself by accident. And though shocked at first, DiMartino returned the hug for a brief moment before she returned to her cooking. And soon afterwards, Luan ran off to meet Giggles, but not before giving one last look at the picture of her family.

Her small, happy family.


End file.
